Cowards And Jealousy Do Not Mix
by dannikkka123
Summary: Ami has just returned from a vacation, after meeting a guy on her trip. When said cute guy shows up at Kamiak to meet her, it seems she's found true love. Or not...


**My first story. I do not own MySims. All I own in this story is the plot, Ami, Herris, and the mentioned character Kasumi.**

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><p>Ami sighed slightly to herself as the train's loud whistle blared, alerting the town of Kamiak to its arrival. Kamiak was a lovely budding little town on the mouth of the Simazon River, a few miles north of Sim City. She always wanted to move to the country. Who knew it would be her ability to build with essences that made that dream a reality.<p>

Don't think wrong, Ami loved the town and its people. She just needed a break every now and then. Escaping back to her hometown was that break. But, now it was back to the daily grind. Go to person's home/place of work. Get an item request. Gather essences. Build item. Deliver item. Rinse, repeat. Every day. And it's not like anyone bothers to hold back on their requests. She's here to help the town rebuild after the last essence builder left, right?

The train screeched to a stop at the Kamiak station, and Ami was the only one to step off. Standing out front was Violet and her sister Poppy, Ami's best friends in the town. Poppy grinned so wide Ami was a little worried her face would split in two, and Violet showed one of her rare, honest smiles. In a few seconds, Ami had an armful of Poppy, with Violet crowding in to get a hug, too.

"Ami! How are you? How was the trip? Did you find any rare flowers? Did you meet any cute guys?" Poppy pestered.

"Poppy, let her breathe!" Violet scolded, but her heart wasn't in it.

"It's ok, V. I'm fine, Poppy. The trip was great, just what I needed. I didn't find any rare flowers, but I did meet a cute guy."

Poppy's mouth dropped open at that, and Violet looked impressed. Ami grinned. They should be surprised at her getting along with a member of the opposite sex. Ami wasn't exactly known for her sociability.

"Really?! You need to tell us! What's his name? What does he look like? Is he sweet? Or is he like, what does Kasumi call it? Tsundra?"

"Tsundere. And he is sweet. His name is Herris, he's blonde, and he is fabulous."

Poppy opened her mouth to say some more, most likely to demand more details, when Violet stepped in.

"Poppy, stop. She's had a long journey. Let her get some rest."

"Thanks, V. I'll meet you at GB's tomorrow after I'm done with work."

"What about me?" Poppy piped up.

"I'll pop into your store. I promise." This promise seemed to pacify Poppy. As much as Ami genuinely loved Poppy, she could be a little overbearing at times.

Ami parted ways with the sisters and traveled the cobble path down to Eclectic Avenue to crawl into her sinfully comfortable bed.

Ami had just turned the corner around to her house, when who would be lingering around but the biggest jerk in Kamiak?

"Hello, Ray. Can you let me pass?"

"Where have you been?"

Ami sighed. Ray was always like this. She regretted the day she ever met him at the hotel.

"I was out-of-town. I do that every other month. Believe it or not, I need vacations, too."

"Tell me before you disappear again. I had requests piling up and no one to fill them."

"Fine." It's better to just agree with Ray than try to argue with him.

Ami stepped through her door and came to a stop in her living room/kitchen area. She had to smile. No matter how tiring or repetitive her job was, her house was worth it. It only had a bedroom, bathroom and a shared kitchen and living room, but she had decorated the hell out of the entire thing. From her soda-can shaped TV to her oversized, scary-as-balls canopy bed, her house was a perfect representation of her - neither here nor there.

She walked over to her wardrobe-and-mirror, back to back and right in front of the hall, and pulled out her favorite pink PJs. She changed quickly and collapsed in bed, going dead to the world as soon as her head hit the pillow.

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><p>It's amazing how therapeutic a good, full night's sleep can be. Ami woke up the following morning with absolutely no fatigue. She quite literally hopped out of bed and set to work spiking her icy-blue hair into its usual organized chaos look. She made sure to slip into her favorite oversized sweater and jean shorts, before grabbing her favorite monocle off the nightstand, and her task book off the desk and heading out.<p>

Thumbing through her task book, she saw that her next delivery was a soda-can shaped TV just like hers, requested by Shirley. As soon as the beehive-haired woman had saw that in Ami's living room, she practically begged Ami every day to build her one just like it.

Ami stepped over to her workshop and slipped inside, immediately grabbing the finished TV and putting it into her magic back pocket that never ran out of room.

She crossed the grassy town quickly, coming to a stop outside the doors to the hair salon, and knocked twice on the door before entering with a swish.

Shirley was busy with a tourist's hair when Ami came in, so she simply sat and waited. Ami had to laugh at the man's shocked look once he noticed Shirley had managed to turn his almost-bald head into an afro.

The man thanked Shirley and left with a whoosh, and Ami stepped up, reaching into her back pocket to pull out the TV.

"Where do you want it?"

"Darling! You actually did it! Fantastic! Just put it in the corner in front of that couch."

Ami set the TV down where directed. Another awesome thing about Kamiak, TVs don't require electricity.

Shirley shrieked in happiness and squeezed Ami tightly. Ami had to smile, because no matter how much she hated her job, her customers' joy was 100% genuine.

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><p>It was nearing dusk when Ami finally got off work, not before promising Dolly she'd make her another copy of her TV. Geez...was there ever an object she could make without everyone else immediately wanting a copy?<p>

She ducked into Poppy's cutesy little flower shop to say hi.

Guess who just happened to be there.

"Herris?"

Both Poppy and the man in question looked at her. Poppy's eyes widened with familiarity.

"Herris? The guy you met?"

"Yes. What are you doing here?"

He looked uncomfortable for a minute. "I, ah, came to see you."

"He gave me a fake name. He wanted to get flowers for you." Poppy piped up.

Ami looked embarrassed at that. Poppy meant well, but she simply didn't know the meaning of subtle.

"Ah, yeah. I did."

Ami glanced at the other girl in the room. "Poppy, could you, you know, give us some privacy?"

Poppy grinned madly before disappearing into the back room. Herris seemed visibly relieved.

"Herris. I didn't think I'd ever see you again. I thought you found me boring."

"I could never. You're the most interesting girl I've ever met. I missed you. And I wanted to say, I think I'm falling in love with you."

Ami blushed sweetly.

"You really mean that?"

"Of course I do."

"I think I could, maybe, fall in love with you, too. If you give me a little time."

"That makes me very happy. I will wait as long as you need."

Ami blinked slowly, a silly smile spreading across her face. She found she didn't really care he was getting closer. In fact, she wanted it.

He was just a hair's breadth away. Almost, and their lips would meet. Almost-

BLAM! The door to Poppy's shop flew open so hard it rattled in its frame. Poppy ran out front to see what the commotion was, and Ami and Herris split apart quickly. Ami whirled around to see who had disturbed what was likely going to be the best kiss of her life.

Who could be standing there but...

GARY MOTHERF***ING OAK!

Just kidding. Actually, it was the town's local jerk, Ray. With the oddest look on his face.

Before anyone could get out a word, Ray had crossed the room, shoved Ami aside, and had Herris up against the wall. Ami could faintly hear Poppy yelling about not hurting her flowers, but neither man was listening.

Ami finally snapped out of whatever trance she had been in when Ray started hissing at Herris. No joke, he sounded like an angry cat.

"Ray! Get off him!" Ami began yanking at Ray's arms and body. "Poppy, help me out!"

Between them both, the girls were able to yank the Goth off the newbie.

"Herris are you ok? I am so sorry. He's not usually like this."

Before Ami could get anything else out, Ray had grabbed her by the wrist and was yanking her out of the store, ignoring her angry cries.

"Let me go! You bastard. First you beat up my friend, then you drag me along to wherever? Get real and let me go!"

"Yeah, friend. That looked really friendly."

"What business is it of yours who I see? Let me go! I need to check on Herris!"

"So that's his name. Does he live here?"

"No, dammit. Let go!"

"Good. I'm taking you to GB's. Violet said you were gonna meet us there after work, so when you didn't show, we went looking for you."

"That's fine. Whatever. But why did you beat up my friend?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does, dammit!" Ami was angrier than she was at the start. By then, they had crossed over the little creek and were making their way to Goth Boy's House of Darkness, the local Goth hangout.

"Shut up! It doesn't matter. I'm taking you to GB's."

"Fine! I know the way. Let go!"

The two stopped in front of the imposing, dark structure, and Ray knocked on the antique knocker.

A familiar young woman in black came to the door.

"Ami! What's wrong?" Violet asked.

Ami glared at Ray. "He came out of nowhere and beat up Herris."

"Herris? The guy you met? He's here?"

"Visiting. I was about to get a kiss when asshole decided to screw up that plan."

Violet shook her head, and let the two of them in. No way was she getting involved. This was something Ray was gonna have to fix himself.

Ami spent the rest of the evening at the house of darkness, reading GB's depressing poetry and trying to cheer him up, as well as avoiding Ray.

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><p>Ami was shocked to see Herris at the train platform the next morning.<p>

"Herris! Are you alright? I am so sorry about last night."

He tensed and turned around slowly.

"Hello, Ami. I was hoping I wouldn't see you this morning."

Ami furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Why not? I can assure you, there's nothing between Ray and I. I don't even like him, in fact. We just live down the road from each other, and he's a little unpredictable, so..." Ami rambled on, trying to convince her new romantic interest that she does not, in fact, have a possessive and jealous boyfriend.

Herris decided to tell her the truth. "Ami, I'm leaving Kamiak."

Ami was shocked into silence. She mouthed a silent 'why'.

"Because of what happened last night! I don't want to be tiptoeing around just because your neighbor or friend or boyfriend or enemy or whatever he is has a short temper. I like you, but I don't want to have to deal with that. There are plenty of girls out there who don't have possessive guy friends. Just like there are plenty of guys out there that wouldn't mind getting beat up for you. I'm sorry, Ami, but I'm leaving."

Ami couldn't believe it. He was leaving just because he was too chicken to fight for her if it meant getting beat up?

"You're leaving because you want an easy ride."

"Sort of, yeah."

Ami was no longer sad. Instead she was angry, and feeling strangely gratified toward Ray, whose actions, however violent, let her see this side of her would-be boyfriend before they got too involved.

Before she could stop it, her hand came down upon his cheek. "You, Herris, are a selfish, cowardly bastard who doesn't want me enough to put up with a little roughhousing. Get out of my sight."

She whirled around and stomped down the street towards the skullfinder museum. Vince, one of her best friends, could always help cheer her up.

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><p>After pouring her heart out to her archaeologist friend, and breaking down in his arms, he looked at her seriously.<p>

"The good news is that you know what he was really like. I'm glad."

"So am I. It just hurts, you know?"

He raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "No, I do not know. I don't mess around with romance and things like that. My work is far too important."

That much was true. No matter how hard she tried, Ami could never imagine Vincent Skullfinder settling down in a relationship. He loved his work far too much for that.

The familiar click of the museum door sounded from the main room.

"Sir Skullfinder? Are you there?" It was Ray's voice. Vince looked at Ami.

"Stay here. I'll go see what he wants."

Vince stepped out of the back room.

"Ah! Hello, Ray. And to what do I owe this pleasure?" Vince's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Save it, Skully. Have you seen Ami?"

"I may, and I may not. Why do you wish to find her?"

"It's ok, Vince. I'll talk to him." Ami said as she stepped out of the back room. Ray stepped forward and took her wrist.

"Come with me. I need to talk to you."

Ami was about to say no, when he dragged her out the door anyway. Jerk.

"Is there anything between you and Skully?"

"No! And his name is Vincent. Not Skully."

"Whatever."

He dragged Ami to a bench out in a secluded part of the forest. He sat down and gestured for her to do the same. Ami did, with some hesitation.

"What do you want? After that little stunt you pulled yesterday, you're lucky I'm even talking to you."

He looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I wanted to... apologize for that, actually. I just, sort of, snapped."

"No kidding. You could have killed Herris."

"Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He left." Ami sighed. Might as well tell him. "He was too chicken to stay around and have the possibility of getting beat up again."

"Oh. I guess I did you a favor, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess you did."

The two sat in uncomfortable silence for a while until Ray spoke up.

"Do you, uh, want to know why I did it?"

"Yes." Duh.

"I, uh.. look, I'm really bad at this sort of thing, but Violet told me to tell you, so... I like you."

Ami blinked. Was he trying to say what she thought he was trying to say?

"I, uh, like you. Like that. Look, instead of talking like a preteen boy with his first crush, I'm gonna come right out and say it. I got jealous of that guy. And I just snapped. And I'm sorry."

"You should have told me, instead of beating up my would-be boyfriend."

"I know. And I'm sorry. But I'm not good at this sort of thing. I can't promise that I'll be good or pleasant, but I can promise that I'll still be there after all the pretty boys are gone."

Ami smiled faintly. What a jerk. A cute jerk, but a jerk nonetheless.

"You're sweet. But we seriously need to work on your anger issues."

"You mean-"

"Yes. I'll go out with you. But no more episodes like last night whenever you get mad, or I'm calling it all off. And we go slow."

"Deal. And, Ami?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry."


End file.
